Garden Renovations

I was regularly posting what we were doing inside our home but did not think to show all that we have done outside during the summer.  It has been a full summer and we have accomplished a lot.

The summer began with a load of black dirt being delivered. We planned to use this to raise the various flower beds around the house so the ground would slope away from the foundation.  It is now September and we still have at least two wheelbarrow loads to move.  Richard complained a lot because I kept getting side tracked with other areas of our garden.  For example; I wanted pots of flowers on our deck, so that came first.  We began in June by paying full price for plants to paying pennies towards the end of July but our pots are pretty, the plumb tree has sent lots of suckers up through the deck slats, I cut them all down in the beginning of spring but could not keep up with cutting them off.

So these are the pots on my back deck, they are not at their best now, the centre plants of the bigger pots have died or finished blooming.

The next plan was to dig up the overgrown Day lilies.  Again Richard was not happy, because 'what about the dirt?'  He helped me dig all the lilies up, as he dug I sorted through placing them all carefully on old sheets and then covering them up with more old sheets and wetting them down.  I broke up the large clumps to be able to put them into pots.   I found choked out iris tubers and Tiger lily bulbs, these I placed separately on the sheets.  We added dirt to the flower bed from the pile, Richard is now happier, added some peat moss and then replanted enough of the lilies to grow back in, leaving a section to plant the irises and tiger lilies.  This is the end result (they have finished blooming of course).

This is what they looked like July 7th; we still had a lot of blooms.

 

We had so many lilies in various pots we were giving them to neighbours, friends and planted many around the garden, as you will see in further pictures.

 

I had purchased a Manitoba Rose bush and needed somewhere to plant it.  So I turned my attention to another part of the garden which really needed cleaning up and digging, much to Richards dismay.  I dug out the old current bushes and goodness knows how much grass and weeds.  Richard tilled the ground we added dirt from our pile, yes that made Richard happy, then we planted lilies against the fence, hopefully they will eventually choke out the grass from the other side of the fence.  We planted the new rose bush and the pitiful samples of perennials that I had begun indoors months earlier, not really expecting any of these to survive.  I pruned the old rose bush, got Richard to stake it hoping to encourage it to come forward rather than back through the fence.  Now I wanted to dig out the raspberry canes that were growing there but Richard wanted them kept, so I just broke up the ground and pulled weeds. 

 

This is the results of our labours in this area.

The Manitoba Rose now

The rose in July

(I had to prune it back due to a mite infestation later in July)

While on my buying spree I also purchased more plants for the north facing garden to help fill in as ground cover.  We began this project last year and are very pleased with what we had already placed there so expanding the number of plants helped.  It does mean weeding this area almost daily because of the tree seeds that collect in this part of the garden.  

 Periwinkle and Ajuga

Creeping Jenny, Autumn Fern, Ajua

Lamium maculatum, Autumn fern, Athyrium fern??

They are all doing very well.  We did try an ivy, which we were assured was hardy for our zone, that did not survive the winter.  This is a work in progress.

I used some more of the dirt to add to the other side of the front and planted some of the lilies, a few annuals and a shrub that I purchased at 50% off, Richard told me I was wasting money as it was dead.  So here is our 'dead' shrub today.

 Diablo Ninebark

 

With a little TLC and pruning it is double the size from when I planted it.  In the spring it will have white flowers, reddish purple foliage throughout summer (which it has now) turning yellowish bronze in fall, peeling bark provides unique winter feature.  So I am looking forward to this as it matures.  As you can see we planted lilies here too.

 A few annuals also planted on this side after adding more dirt.  This is where we planted the dogwoods last year, one has done really well the other one has some sort of bug and is a bit stunted, I am hoping it will survive the winter.

Dogwood (has red stems in the winter)

We went on holiday before useing the dirt for the purchased purpose.  While we were away I spent time in our daughter, Lynda's garden, weeding.  I could not resist bringing a few small samples home and of course it meant I had to find a place for them which meant digging another area of garden.  I had to move bricks from the area I had chosen, then dig out an old unknown sorry looking shrub, once dug Richard tilled the area, we added several bags of peat-moss and dirt from our pile.  Not only did I plant the various types of hostas and anemone from Lynda's, I also transplanted painted daisy plants that had grown from my early indoor efforts.

It is hard to see the plants as I have begun to add pine cones as mulch around them.  There are three different hostas, one anemone and at least 10 small painted daisy plants in this section of garden.  I still had purchased other plants and had to make a small flower bed in order to plant them, plus I added to my flower bed at the corner by the front door that the dirt was purchased for.

I used some of the dirt to make this small flower bed in the front of the house, where I planted, sage, variegated thyme,  a small yellow day lilie and two lots of Irish moss.  I moved my Nipigon rock to mark the front of this bed, I've also added small tiger-Lillie bulbs for nurturing over the next few years.

Here I added a Clementine,  Irish-moss, a pink Day-lily, a purple Veronica, an unknown perennial, and a petunia for colour.

Finally it was time to get to the flower bed that we had first purchased the dirt for.  Last week and the past long week-end was really hot yet we were outside digging, at least I was digging up the last of the grass and weeds from here, then dug over the areas that had been done in the past but never planted with anything.  Richard found more plant pots for me to put the delphiniums and tiger Lilies etc. into, as I dug them up, for the time being.  He then tilled that whole area, we added peat-moss, manure, compost and of course dirt from the pile.  Once this was done, Richard dug a trench which will have crushed rock, weeping tile socked hose and then covered with more crushed rock.  Then I had to plant everything back in the garden. 

In the past I have spread the delphiniums out and the Tiger-lilies were put into clumps. So when it bloomed it looked like this.

 Not a pretty sight (you can see the area of grass and weeds that needs digging out).

Now I have clumped all the delphiniums together, hopefully I can stake them easier this way.  In front of those I have several clumps of Tiger-lilies and ???(I can never remember the name of the other plant).  The flower bed now looks like this.

With all this work the path collapsed and for safety sake we removed the loose slab.

Another project I've wanted to do, ever since we purchased this house, was to rejuvenate the larger pond, that was obscured by an overgrown lilac.  Last year we put in two Virginia creepers they are filling in nicely and will cover the area and climb the wooden monstrosity we inherited.   Thursday after work Richard moved almost all the dirt that is left around the pond to build up the ground, I moved stones, pulled out the waterfall part of the pond to reposition it higher and give it a sharper slope so the water makes more of a noise when it runs. As of last night this is what that area looks like.

As you see there are Day-lilies here too, I pulled out the waterfall part and moved it about six inches further back up the bank, we still have to fill in underneath that, add rocks for a steeper grade, then add stone and rocks to give it a more natural look.  I don't really want to add fabric under everything and would rather add ground cover and rock garden plants that will grow amongst the rocks giving the area colour.

 

Leaves will always be a problem because this is under a very large dirty old maple but if we don't use fabric the leaves will just breakdown, especially if we put plants among the rocks.

This is just to the right of the pond so will fill the area in nicely... we can add annuals and other perennials if we keep the Virginia creeper under control.

 This is how the corner looks from the other side of the garden area.

This is all the stone, rock and brick mostly taken from around the two ponds and will go back around the pond I've mentioned.

Other items in the garden that need work,  pine cones to rake up;

 

 

Cherry crab apples to pick;

Cherry plumbs to pick, once they are ripe;

 

Pine cone mulch still to be put down;

We did do a few other things; cut back the other lilac;  but it still needs work.

 

 

replaced the mail box; 

 

 

 

cut down a cedar;

 

 

and a branch off the apple tree.

 

 

 

We never did get the smaller pond working this year or prune this ornamental weeping cherry.  We have a ton of pruning still to do and a new sidewalk to build to the front door and maybe new flower beds.  Gardening never ends just like renovations on a 100 year old home.